​ Sound bites in today’s world are as inevitable as they are the nemesis of clear thinking. Politics thrives on sound bites.  Why use a hundred words to explain something when you can have more impact with two or three?  Slogans and phrases are intended to arouse emotions, which they do, but in  social media they can harden into opinions and battle cries, or conspiracy theories, which somehow replace research and critical thinking. "Who has time for debate and  research when you already know what’s true.” a friend commented facetioudly to me. But at the same time, he was deadly earnest.
      President Franklin Roosevelt was an early expert on arousing urgency without scaring everyone to death.  “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”  made us think we were practically guaranteed to win the war that was about to envelop the world.  No one wanted to dwell on the tfate of  Pearl Harbor and the loss of half of our Navy.   Roosevelt showed leadership by inspiring confidence, while Churchill often added sarcasm or wit. “When you’re going through hell, keep going,” he said. This was an era of using  phrases positively, to invoke patriotism and the common cause.

 Then something changed in politics toward the end of the twentieth century. The whole idea became to scare people to death.  Images and sound bites—the ones you couldn’t get out of your head, and would influence your vote—had the power of an addiction: ”Make love, not war," “Blood and soil,” “cancel culture,” “Black Lives Matter,” “White Power,” “Willie Horton is coming for you,” “We are Q.”  The word “disinformation" is getting replaced by “freedom of speech” and “opinion.”  This is an example of what one historian called “totalist  language…where a slogan protects itself from scrutiny or analysis as it builds social and political  power."  
I wish the next George Orwell would grab the mic soon.  A novel like 1984 needs to be updated to include AI, hacking academies, and spy drones.  The only constant will be the autocrat who runs it all.

Michael R. French is a bestselling multi-genre author. His latest novel is Cliffhanger, a suspense thriller. His first published work, which he describes as a “throwaway,” was released in 1977.  His second novel was a bestseller.
Despite his early success, he resisted the pressure to stay in one lane. Over the course of a five decade career, he’s written fiction, young adult fiction, adaptations, biographies, art criticisms, and several screenplays. 
We discuss Michael’s lengthy love affair with writing, why characterization is more important than plot, and his thoughts on self-publishing. 
To learn more, be sure to listen to today’s episode of The Fearless Storyteller podcast.
Learn more about Michael R. French at his website.

Say Goodbye to Writer’s Block28 free eBooks and resources to help you find inspiration, focus, and success with your writing.

I remember the significant outcry in 2016 when Colin Kaepernick took a knee during the National Anthem, protesting racial injustice. The nerve of an athlete using his knee to desecrate our beloved anthem, many said.  Last year, a video showed  a police officer planting his knee on George Floyd's neck, suffocating him to death. The victim was a troublemaker,  said many of the same people irate with Kaepernick.  This year,  one of the rioters storming the Capitol, bending over if not quite kneeling, used an American flag pole to beat a police officer nearly to death.  The rioter was protesting the results of an election.  The response I heard  from a vast number of “patriots" was an eerie, haunting silence.    ​

​​Mr. French's manner of story telling is unique and his writing masterful and precise. I feel I'm being mesmerized bass I read- if that can be possible - as if I'm watching a painting being made, brush strokes by brush stroke. His style is invisible, he is not standing between the reader and the story. And the story seems to materialize out of itself.
 
 Mr. French's #1 talent as a writer is his way of generating living, breathing characters. I became aware of his flair for this about half way through the book. I had been reflecting upon what I had just read when I realized that I have a high definition image of the main character, Brit, and that I have no recollection of reading lengthy passages that describe her in such fine detail. My dawning was this:  she was assembled by me from lots of little pieces, unrelated quirks, gestures, stray thoughts. Perhaps this is the same mechanism that we use when we come to "know" someone, that we form a composite from the bits and pieces of what we observe. Here we areaquainted with High School seniors in the process of sifting and solidifying the traits that will define their future roles. The readers are on a parallel course with that of the characters, we are aquiring an ever increasing detailed image of them as they gain deeper understanding of themselves. In one memorable scene, we become more familiar with Nathan through the eyes of Brit as she clandestinely surveys the contents of his bedroom through a closed window. His possessions help us to understand the diverse factors influencing his internal make up, subtle hints ,that become obvious with hindsight , of the ingredients that will flavor his unfolding personality disorders.  Here, Mr. French's fluid manner of description is cinematic, successfully emulating that of Hitchcock in the opening scene of Rear Window.
 
 Cliffhanger is a purely fun-to-read novel. We become witness to aspects of average American High School life coalesce into a promise of a greater future, one that they will play a part in designing.
 

​His first love, adult and young adult fiction, tackles diverse subjects from the world of horse racing to politics, focusing on characters as much as a page-turning plot.  His novel, Abingdon's, was a bestseller and a Literary Guild Alternate Selection. His young adult novel, Pursuit, was awarded the California Young Reader Medal.  He has also co-written two screenplays for Amazon Prime.


Receiving his Bachelor of Arts in English from Stanford University, he focused on creative writing and studied under Wallace Stegner. He received a Master's degree in journalism from Northwestern University.  He later served in the United States Army before marrying Patricia Goodkind, an educator and entrepreneur, and starting a family. Working under his wife, Patricia, ten years ago they created a non-profit foundation, Dollar4Schools, which continues  helping support  Santa Fe public schools and its  teachers.  


An avid trekker and traveler to developing countries, French loves diving and snorkeling, and for the last decade began studying  endangered marine and land mammals.   He believes climate change is currently the world’s greatest long-term problem.


He and  Patricia divide their time between Santa Barbara, California, and Santa Fe, New Mexico. 
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​How has America gotten into such trouble in every way conceivable?  We ignore our astounding national debt, urban violence, race relations, women’s reproductive rights, free speech, gun rights, income inequality…the polarization is endless.  What I’m trying to fathom is our general reluctance or inability to handle these complex problem. I have a clue:  American exceptionalism. I find it one of the  most dangerously misleading phrases in our culture   Yes, our country does some things extremely well, better than the rest of the world, and Americans can be incredibly kind and generous.  But our exceptionalism has become a broad brush  for championing the good while ignoring the bad, a shield to hide behind when our country is  criticized for its narcissism, indifference and ignorance.  We rationalize that critical problems like climate change can’t be easily solved so why make the effort? "The technology will show up when it’s needed. My life is busy enough,” a friend of mine says.   


 We wallow in our exceptionalism, but we don’t back it up by tackling the tough stuff that requires sacrifice and stamina. Many of us don’t like “hard.” We definite “living in the moment” as something wonderful and In many ways the goal is admirable.  Yet when I think about slogans with honest roots,  I prefer “living for the future.”  In the meantime, we are the world’s biggest back slappers. We love to congratulate ourselves, give out participant trophies, and exult in our pursuit of happiness.   Like a lost tribe of dreamers, the path marked “most difficult” has little interest for us.  I propose we observe a moratorium on the phrase “American exceptionalism.”  If we’re going to embark on a positive future for all, how about “American wisdom.”